During the period from May 21-31, 2006, the African portion of the Intertropical Convergence Zone was located near 13.6 degrees north latitude when averaged from 15W-35E over the ten day period. This compares to the normal location of 14.2N, and a position during the previous dekad of 13.5N. Areas to the west of Nigeria as well as to the east, are experiencing close to normal ITCZ position values when comparing it to the climatological mean. The current position has taken a jump to the north (Seen in figure 1) along the western half of Africa and has dipped to the south along the eastern half of Africa when comparing it to last dekads analysis. This ITCZ movement corresponds well with the accumulated dekadal rainfall. Examining figure 3 which depicts the ITCZ vs normal for the area of 20-35 degrees east, it is seen that after beginning the season well south of normal, the ITCZ rapidly moved northward last dekad and has now dipped back down to the south near normal. Additional information may be found at:
http://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/fews/ITCZ/itcz.shtml
Figure 1
Figure 3 Figure 2
